Assignment Guidelines

MGT Assignment Guidelines

Oral Reports
Sample Report Architecture: IBP

Full Written Reports*
Sample Report: Fuji-Xerox

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This page was last updated on 15 JAN 2005. Please refer problems and errors to walter.ferrier@uky.edu

Oral Case Reports

Each team will present its recommendations for the assigned case to the class. If the team plays the role of an outside consulting firm, the class/audience might play the role, for example, of the firm’s principal shareholders and industry analysts. Thus, the oral presentation should be conducted in the most professional manner possible: clarity, brevity, impact, energy, passion, and persuasiveness all are very important. Total presentation time for oral reports will limited to 25 minutes, to be followed up by between 5-10 minutes of Q&A.
Oral reports may be presented in any style you wish, however most reports are likely to cover the following: issues and outlook, external analysis, internal analysis, and strategic recommendation (mission, goals, and detailed action plan). Since the oral report limited in duration, presenters should identify only the most important "pre-recommendation" issues (» 4-5 minutes). Presenters should therefore emphasize the action plan (» 8-10 minutes). Presenters are required to prepare overheads using Microsoft PowerPoint. For better visibility, use at least 24-32 point font for most text, chart labels, etc.
Please prepare a one-page executive summary of your presentation bring enough copies to distribute to everyone in the class (about 50 copies).
Submit "handouts" (perhaps printed in 4 slides per page format) to the course instructor.
Following each presentation, the class will fulfill their concerned shareholder/analyst roles by asking salient, challenging, and probing questions (» 5-10 minutes) of the presentation team. To encourage participation, I may randomly select one or two teams to serve as Q&A discussion leaders. (NOTE: This format requires that presentation be well-rehearsed and ALL "shareholders" be fully prepared.)
A copy of the Oral Report Evaluation Form may be found here.

Report Content and Structure

* Refer to the Fuji-Xerox written report (above) to provide some content and structure ideas and guidelines.

In terms of organization and content, you are welcome to present oral reports using any format/style you see fit. However, each case report will often include the following components in some form or fashion:

Issues and Outlook Profile: This section should broadly address only the most important issues confronting the firm? What is the significance of each? What has been the firm’s level of/interest in international activities up until the "end" of the case? Has the firm been successful? Why? Could the firm be successful? Very broadly, where is the firm headed? Consider a 3-5 year time frame both before the "end" of the case and into the future. (No histories, please. Be mindful of who your "audience" is. The "executives" of the firm are in the audience and are already knowledgeable about the firm.)

Analysis of the Global Competitive Context: Which environmental forces are most likely to influence the firm’s actions and future performance: international competitive, economic, political, cultural, technological, or legal forces or actors? Who are the firm’s present/future customers? ...competitors? Use these questions to develop list of opportunities and threats and briefly discuss why each are important.

Analysis of the Firm’s Capabilities: What are the firm’s sources of competitive advantage? Has the firm approached strategic management in a way that leverages its competitive advantage and/or potential for success? Does the firm follow a strategy appropriate for the matrix of environmental forces? Use these questions, and others, to develop a list of strengths and weaknesses and discuss why each is important.

Action Recommendations: This section comprises the largest, most important single section of the paper and should be given the most weight and attention. It may be most helpful to put yourself in the shoes of an outside consultant who is been hired by the main characters or the top-management team (TMT) in the case. To receive your full consulting "fee," you must persuade them to adopt your specific recommendations instead of some competing consulting team’s recommendations.

First, specify a mission statement for international involvement for the firm. (Written: Use italics to set off the mission statement from other text. A sentence or two before and/or after the mission statement may be included for clarification, intent, and/or elaboration.)
Then, a set of specific goals -- financial and/or strategic goal need to be identified. Also, provide some indication as to the timeframe by which each goal is to be achieved. Use numbering or bullet point format to draw attention to each one. Have a set of goals which is either too simplistic (only one or two); nor too complex (7-8 goals).
Next, develop a detailed strategic action plan which addresses all or most of the salient issues you identified in the sections above. For example, you might have identified a new, attractive industry segment to sell to (external analysis); yet, the firm lacks the experience and/or resources to move into the market with sufficient speed or force (internal analysis). You might then recommend that the firm form an alliance with another firm. However, you must provide more specific details about the critical aspects of alliance formation: partner selection criteria, degree of formality (equity-based vs. loose commitment); contributions of each partner (cash vs. technology vs. distribution channel vs. marketing knowledge); relative control over alliance for each partner; roles and responsibilities of each partner; and, expected results for the alliance. NOTE: This section should be as complete as possible. That is, your strategic action plan should leave very few issues identified in the External and Internal analysis sections unresolved.
The best plans are likely to be broken up into discrete, identifiable components and sub-sections (like those identified in the alliance example above). Each component of the overall action plan should contain the following: a label for each strategic action, a set of specific tasks to be carried out, justifications, a brief description of new resources required/to be developed, and a brief description as to how this action component will contribute to the attainment of one or more of the goals identified. For oral presentations, this is easy to accomplish - since each PowerPoint slide can help you effectively delineate one idea from the next.

(NOTE: It is not necessary to have one-for-one goal-action pairs. In some instances, specific strategic actions can relate to more than one goal.) Your overall plan of action and set of goals should, in many cases, be challenging, yet achievable -- creative and innovative, yet feasible.